Pet of the Week: Porscha the Hairless Chinese Crested

“Last fall, me, my husband, his brother, and some friends with all 6 of our collective kids, went up to our mountain house for a few days. While up there, we decided to go out for an, “adults only” celebration of my friend’s 40th birthday. We called a baby-sitter that I have known for several years to watch all of the kids and we went out to a nice restaurant. Though we were having a great time, the wait for a table was quite a bit longer than anticipated. It was getting late, so I called the house to check-in and make sure that everything was alright. The sitter said that the kids were all in bed and that everything was fine, but she was worried that our dogs had not gone out for a while and asked if she should let them out. I told her that it was fine to open the door and let them out. The woods are dense behind the house, and being a Hairless Chinese Crested (Porscha) and a Chihuahua (Echo), neither of them are much for “exploring.” Both usually do their “business” and run right back into the house as if they can’t stand to be outside for more than a few minutes at a time – unless it’s a sunny day and they will linger in the sun. The dogs are very familiar with the area, (we go there often), and they have never strayed. So she said she would let them out and we hung up.

After dinner – about an hour later, I called again to let the sitter know that we were on our way back and that we’d be there shortly. I was surprised to hear that when she let the dogs out, Echo our Chihuahua had come back in, but Porscha, who is a little shy by nature, refused to walk past her. When the sitter bent down to pick her up, Porscha ran away. I was completely shocked by this because she had never run away before. The sitter was extremely upset, so I told her not to worry and that I was sure that she’d come back when I arrived home because Porscha is always “glued to my hip.” It was a warm evening, and Porscha had her PJs on, so I figured she should be alright wherever she was hiding, (and I was convinced she must have been hiding).

When we arrived back at the house, the sitter and one of her co-workers greeted us. The sitter had called her friend/co-worker to help her look for the dog, above and beyond the call of duty, and very thoughtful. They could not go too far into the woods because they did not want to leave the kids, but they said that they thoroughly checked around the house. We sent the sitter home and my brother-in-law and our friends went inside to be with the kids while my husband and I looked for Porscha in the woods…at midnight…in Vermont. It was very dark…The flashlights that we had brought only helped light up a small area. It was so dark that we could not see more than a few feet in front of us. We walked through the woods, over boulders and rock ledge, around downed trees, and through thick, wet mud calling Porscha’s name, but she did not come. After about an hour and several scratches from thorny thatch, a few falls, and banged up shins, my husband and I decided to call it quits. It was after 1:00AM and I still could not believe that Porscha would take off like that – it was so dark and the woods were so thick, I did not see how she could have physically gotten very far…It was at that time that I started to worry that maybe a coyote, owl, or other “wild” animal had gotten her.

As we slowly walked back towards the house, I heard the sound of a car horn coming from our driveway. My husband and I agreed that his brother and our friends must have found her. We rushed back to the house to find Porscha and my brother-in-law standing at the front door! My brother-in-law was smiling…He said that he decided to check inside the house one last time, and when he went down to the room where our kids were sleeping, he saw a slight movement in the laundry basket under the clothes…It was Porscha! She had been there the whole time – warm and toasty. My brother-in-law actually had to nudge her to wake her up!

Though it was late, I texted the sitter to let her know that Porscha was found because she had left practically in tears and I wanted her to be able to sleep soundly that night. She was so relieved. When I spoke with her the next day, I told her the story. She said that Porscha must have snuck back into the house when they were looking for her outside. They had left the door cracked open just in case she decided to come back, and that’s exactly what she did.”